Limbo Written Review

Dark monochrome puzzle plaformer Limbo is a fantastic showcase of how simple solid controls can really help make a game an enjoyable experience. At first I thought the game would be a long playthrough but it lasted less than three hours. This made the game short, sweet and simple. Video version can be found here.

Story

About a quarter of way through the game you will find yourself asking why. Why am I racking my brain trying to figure out this bloody puzzle? What am I going to get at the end of this? That question is answered about three quarters of the way into the game. Spoiler Alert! The character seems to be doing this to find a girl. We never find out more about her, we don’t even see her face. All we see is her back. To be fair when I saw her I instantly wanted to find out more about her. She became my pushing force to find out more.

Gameplay

The puzzles in this game really show how much attention was paid to make them good. They are well thought out with some making the player not just think horizontally, but vertically too. Near the end of the game gravity and magnetism comes into play and timing also plays a big part in making sure your little character makes it through. One aspect of the game that I personally liked was that it felt as though the enemies in this game were not there to simply stop the player from moving forward but to actually drive the game and story forward.

Presentation

The game is easy on the eyes. It is done in a monochrome style so you won’t be seeing much of a color pallet here but you won’t miss them. It is an effective style which helps create a creepy atmosphere. The music is subtle but also loud when something important is happening on screen.

Bad

Like I previously mentioned in the half way review the only issue I have with this game is sometimes the checkpoint placement can be off.

Closing comments

This is a short and sweet game. I haven’t played a good platformer with good puzzles in a while so playing this game was a welcome change. I highly recommend Limbo.